Jia Daihua
贾代化
“The Name on the Certificate”
His Story
He is the second master of the Ningguo line, son of the first Duke, and he is dead long before the novel begins. Leng Zixing disposes of him in Chapter 2: when the Duke died, 贾代化袭了官 — Daihua inherited the office — and had two sons, the elder dead at eight or nine, the younger, Jia Jing, left to succeed him. His fullest appearance in the book is a line on a form. In Chapter 13, buying Jia Rong a commission, the paper records his great-grandfather: 原任京营节度使世袭一等神威 将军贾代化.
In Xiang Li's Hands
She gives the form-filler a state portrait. He sits square in a carved chair, purple robe with gold dragon roundels, winged black cap, thin grey beard, ink mountains and a small red pavilion behind. The rank on the certificate is all the novel gives her, and she paints it in full.
The Calligraphy
贾代化, three characters down the right in the bare rock, the generation name 代 included — a man placed by rank and cohort rather than addressed by name.
Connections
- Jia Jing 贾敬 — his surviving son, who inherited the office and left it for alchemy.
- Jia Fu 贾敷 — his elder son, dead in childhood.
- Jia Daishan 贾代善 — his cousin of the same generation, holding the Rongguo side.
Others of the same kind · Jia clan – founders & Ningguo House Jia Xichun 贾惜春 · Jia Zhen 贾珍 · Jia Jing 贾敬 · Jia Fu 贾敷 · Jia Qiang 贾蔷
Named on these pages Jia Fu 贾敷
Dream of the Red Chamber
Xiang Li painted all 413 characters of the novel between 1975 and 1985, the first person to complete the entire cast. See the whole collection · Chinese Empresses
